Idaland

Howdy ladies and gents,

I am planning on levelling a dirge but due to the fact that I am new (levelled a char to 18 2 years ago and am returning now) I was wondering if a dirge is a good choice. I read that dirges are wanted in groups but I am a bit worried about soloing; the char I levelled 2 years ago was a dirge and he was fun to play but harsh to solo.
Any tips/pointers will be highly appreciated.
Cheers

valnas

well, dirges aren't the worst solo class to lvl up (templars, defilers, and guards come to mind). Your useful CC is limited but effective (bow root, snare, fear, and ae interupt/knock). Your ae dps is non existent, and overall even single target output is very gear orriented.

The plus, is that you can solo moderately difficult mobs in open areas by kiting them. Most of the quests lvling up are in open zones so you should be able to progress through most lines with no problems. You also have a leg up on most people pre-mount runspeed if your poor, which will save you a ton of time running across zones for turn ins.

If your patient and think you can learn the play style, you should be fine. Endgame and grouping are a lot different, but dirges are almost always in demand so once you hit 80 you won't have to solo much beyond quests for aa. If you want an easy go of it, I'd recomend a brigand/bruiser/conjuror/mystic amongst the archtypes. Good luck, and despite all I wrote, you should strongly consider reading the forum of the class you choose if you plan to raid.

__________________



Love is on Lockdown

Idaland

Thanks for the info; I will surely try to get as much info as possible on dirges. At which level do people start to group up more? Seems the first 20 levels are more or less soloed by everyone (haven't leveled a char past level 20 so can't judge after that).

Orani

Yeah, I agree with Valnas.

The Bard supports survivability and DPS directly to players, more than to your self, so this means you'll be able to increase the group's skill as such to be able to successfully land damage, avoid mob damage more often, and recuperate faster between encounters. This also means it can be tricky to solo until ya get some nice fabled gear and CA/spell upgrades.

Bards can do quite well without extensive kiting until around tier5 dungeons; by then, you'll have to start kiting more often since the mob mechanics start drastically changing at tier5 dungeons and higher.

A mixed bag in the lower levers for grouping when you are a Dirge. Some players will tell ya that Dirges suck until ya get into tier8 and other players will love ya for get'n the group to kill mobs easier and recuperating faster.

Also, there are definately times when you'll have to dance with the mob to kill him.

AAs will help ya much in the lower levels as well.

The thing that sucks about starting up is coin. Harvesting, quests, and name treasure hunting is how you'll get your coin. However, if ya can get into a guild, then ya might be able to bum a plat or two from a lvl80 guildie that will help ya out quite a bit. Plat is crazy easy to get in tier8.

Dirge has been my only main character for 2 years since I returned to EQ2. This was around when the secondary craft professions were introduced so players were buying tier1, tier2, and tier3 treasured items for 15g each. The coin I got was so crazy that I was able to adept3 all my combat arts and spells asap, got most of them mastered, and able to grab some fabled items from broker here and there and I was able to buy my nightmare mount at lvl26 adventurer. So I was pimped out quite well below lvl40 allowing me to solo blue con dungeon names that were a level or two below my adventure levels when one on one with the name. Name encounter adds suck so ya gotta burn them off first, evac or tinkerer FD, and then return to kill named, but sometimes ya might not have to do this.

Otherwise, think even at adept3 with decent gear, ya can solo at the very least green con names.

Make sure ya use potions, totems, and good food/drink as these are very useful at the lower levels.

If want soloing to be a bit easier, then choose Tinkerer as your secondary crafting profession. Tinkerers are able to provide only them self with interesting abilities that can improve your solo combat such as FD, manastones, lifestones, roots, damage pets, rez items (that are useful until ya get your rez spell), and there is more I bet as well.

Orani

If ya have the Shadow Odyssey expansion, then AAs can help noticeably in higher levels once ya got the proper amount of AA points allocated to unlock the particular Shadow Odyssey AA trees. Although, you might not access the Shadow Odyssey AA trees until you're around level 70ish unless ya grind AA exp.

To grind AA exp, disable combat experience while ya kill mobs to complete quests and such. Also, ya can betray back and forth from good to evil to good and so on to get quite a few AAs in the begining, but this betray approach for AA can be boring as hell to the point where ya want to stab your self. You'll get alot of crap for grinding AAs at lower levels, but if ya want to be awesome in the lower levels, then the AAs can make a very noticeable difference in solo capabilities.

Idaland

Thanks a lot kind sir for all the information provided.
It is immensly appreciated. I am looking forward immensly to play the game again. Can't wait till my router is set up at my gf's place so I can play more often

Orani

another tidbit ...

You do not always need a full group to complete your toughest of quests or to complete a tough zone. This is accomplished thru mentors. The higher the level of mentor the more benefit, and if the high level mastered out the low lvl cas/spells, then he'll be even more useful. A raid geared lvl80 mentor can be equivalent to many players when mentoring at lower levels.

Try to befriend a fella that might occasionally mentor ya. This sure does makes quests, AA, and experience progress faster.

I'd say about all, if not most of, the tactics here on eq2flames are for end-game raiding players at lvl80, but I bet ya can adapt some of the tactic concepts to your level and even more so the further ya progress in adventure levels.